by Jayne Blue
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Best you shut up and listen to me.”
That’s when the next step in my plan to trap Sonny Maldonado changed.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jules
It had been two days of nerves. I felt fear and threat at every turn, down every hall, in every elevator ride to my apartment, and I had to pretend like I didn’t.
What was Daddy waiting for? Ryder visited me at night, reassured me, and I did the same for him. We had it all planned but had to keep waiting for Daddy to do the next thing. That was driving me insane.
The fires at the two clubs were in the papers. Fire investigators suspected a “firebug” and were still looking at the evidence. I knew they’d get it when Ryder thought it was time. When Daddy made a move against them or me.
But it didn’t happen. Two long days. Ryder’s next step or Daddy’s? Who would blink?
I was working in The Judge’s office, trying to distract myself, trying to be normal, and trying to be sure I had collected every scrap of evidence against The Judge. That’s when Daddy finally made his move.
I had smelled the cigarette smoke before he walked in. I braced myself for whatever he had planned.
Daddy walked into The Judge’s office like he owned it. I guess he sort of did.
“Irene?” I called out but got no answer from The Judge’s secretary. The Judge heard cases in the courtroom. I was about to be alone with Daddy.
He burst through the door, and it was just Daddy and me. He was as pissed off as usual and ready to punish me.
“So, you think you’re pretty smart don’t you girlie.” He called me girlie, not by my name. And each word came out of his mouth like he was spitting.
“What are you doing here?” I backed up a few steps. The Judge’s office was still in disarray.
“You know why I’m here. Your old friends the Great Wolves are acting up. They forget who runs this town.”
“What does that have to do with me?” I asked and tried to pretend I had no interest.
“It has everything to do with you.” Daddy came forward and grabbed my arm. He squeezed hard, and I winced. “Come in here.” He called out into the hall.
I had to blink to be sure my eyes were seeing what they were seeing.
“Bret.” Boone, Daddy’s favorite henchman, was behind Bret and had a knife to her throat. I didn’t move an inch. My feet were nailed to the floor as Boone pushed Bret further into The Judge’s office.
“We’re here, why don’t you tell your fucking goon to let go of me?” Bret was as tough as ever, but I was scared for her.
“You marched her through the courthouse?”
“Yeah I did girlie. Boone knows how to keep Bret really quiet and the knife low. So useful. Also another reason I’m grateful that The Judge listened to me and shot down those metal detector ideas a few years ago.” Daddy smiled, and it sent a chill through my veins. He spoke straight into my ear and squeezed me hard with an iron grip. He was always pulling the strings here. Way more than any judge or lawyer in the place.
He was going to show me something. He was here to prove that he had me and that no matter what Ryder and I did he would do worse. This was worse.
“You’ve been friends with this one a while haven’t you?” I didn’t know that Daddy remembered that Bret was my friend before she was a Hawk or a Great Wolf. The path of her life turned ugly every time the Hawks were on it. And this. Oh God. I hoped this was a show.
He picked Bret because of my history with her. I realized now Daddy didn’t miss anything.
“She has nothing to do with this,” I said.
“That’s pretty funny. She’s a Great Wolf now, and you’re a big fan of the Great Wolves.”
“Fuck you, Sonny,” Bret said. He didn’t acknowledge her.
I had wanted to provoke him. I had wanted to flush out his worst instincts. I had. But I thought I would pay the price for it. Instead, he was going to make me watch others pay for my disobedience. I was going to have to watch him take it out on people who didn’t deserve it. How had they picked Bret up? I thought she was guarded. I thought Ryder and the Wolves were all watching each other’s backs?
But here she was, Boone, towered over her, he was three times her size, and I knew he was mean. I’d seen it over and over. I also knew he would hurt Bret if Daddy ordered it.
“Let Bret go,” I told Boone. My words sounded small, and the fear I had was impossible to mask.
“See I could just kill you. That would be the easiest. It would take care of a lot of my problems. But it would also create new ones. I need The Judge, he seems to need you, and the town knows you’re with him,” Daddy was explaining why I wasn’t at the end of Boone’s knife. I felt like his cigarette smell breath was going to make me vomit. “No, much better to let Bret take the fall. Any more bullshit from the Great Wolves and I kill Ryder next.”
I was panicked. Boone had the knife at her throat. Boone would do what Daddy ordered. He’d proved he was Daddy’s favorite weapon these days. I swallowed hard and felt desperation. What could I do to stop this?
Maybe I could tell Daddy what I had been up to? Threaten him in some way. My mind raced and then Daddy nodded. I jerked as hard as I could to be free of his arm, but it was impossible.
Boone plunged the knife into Bret’s stomach. It was easy with his massive arm. She was so small.
“Goddamn it.” She said, and blood began to spill from her onto the tarps I had on the floor of The Judge's offices.
“Bret!” I yelled, and Daddy grabbed me tighter.
“That’s a-fucking-nough out of you. You killed her you, idiot.”
Daddy let me go, and I raced to the floor. Bret’s eyes were closing. Boone stepped back. I scrambled for my phone and started yelling for help.
“They’ll be here, in a few minutes.” Daddy said. Like he’d arranged for the courthouse to be a ghost town so he could do whatever he wanted. Where WAS everyone?
Daddy and Boone walked slowly out of the office. I screamed again and again. Was I supposed to try to stop the bleeding? How? There was so much.
I’d done this. I wanted him to show himself and get caught. He showed himself alright, but he was as free as anyone on the planet.
Daddy ordered a murder in the courthouse and walked away. God. What had I done? Why had I thought we could do this without getting someone killed? We were so stupid.
I screamed again. Finally, I heard sirens.
Irene was back. The Judge lifted me up. I couldn’t stop screaming.
Daddy was right. I had done this.
He would hurt or kill anyone who I trusted, or leaned on, or loved. And no matter how smart I thought I was I could never be as vicious as he was.
So he would always win.
The Judge let me go with Bret. I couldn’t leave her side. She was pale and bleeding, and it was all my fault.
They loaded Bret into the ambulance, and I followed. As we drove, panic, and guilt washed over me.
My plan had blown up in my face, and Bret paid for it not me. The sirens wailed. Maybe Bret could survive if we got to the hospital fast enough? I held her hand and prayed that I hadn’t caused her death.
Finally, the ambulance stopped. I knew I’d have to be out of the way for the medical professionals.
I hopped out of the back of the ambulance and was more confused than I’d ever been in my entire life.
“This isn’t the hospital. What the hell is going on?”
We were in the back of the Great Wolves Auto Body.
“We need to get Bret to the hospital.” I had no idea what was happening. A group of Great Wolves emerged from the back of the shop.
“That looks legit.” One said as he pounded the hood of the ambulance.
And then Ryder walked out, and I stormed forward.
“What’s happening. Bret needs you. Boone knifed her in the stomach.”
“He did a shitty job.” I whirled around, and
there was Bret, looking a hell of a lot better, and a hell of a lot less stabbed.
“Ryder?”
“What?”
“Boone, he fucking stabbed her. Daddy ordered it, and I saw it and, are you playing with me, Bret?” A massive headache was blooming in my forehead.
“Close the garage door. We don’t want to blow this.” A guy with a patch that read Cruz gave some orders and Great Wolves scrambled to do what he said.
“Pretending.” Bret lifted her shirt and showed me her tiny stomach. Not a scratch on it but a hell of a lot of blood.
“Yep. I think I should get an academy award.” Bret said, and a big dude with a cut that read Nero shot me a mean look.
“I think we’re lucky this one hasn’t gotten anyone actually killed.” This Nero was not a fan of mine. And he wasn’t wrong either.
“Come on in. I’ll explain.”
Not long after I was introduced to some of the Great Wolves crew. Ryder, Ridge, Nero, who still looked at me with suspicion, a guy named Polk was hovered around, I read Cruz’s patch. He was their Prez.
“Can you please explain?” No one was doing much to help me out, and then another biker walked in.
It was Boone, Devil’s Hawk Henchman, Daddy’s right-hand man.
“What the fuck?” I moved backward. This was the man I’d just watched stab Bret in cold blood. This was the man Daddy had sent to guard me, scare me, haul me back to Southwood, and here he was in the company of the Great Wolves. And they weren’t trying to kill him?
“Boone’s been offered a spot as Great Wolves probie,” Cruz explained to me.
“Under me, I’m his boss, you owe me that one,” Bret punched Boone’s arm. They were friends all of sudden?
“Sit down,” Ryder said and offered me a place on the couch of the Auto Body office.
“No, explain,” I didn’t want to sit. I was getting a bit hysterical and couldn’t stop it. I also felt dizzy.
“Miss,” Boone stepped forward and then he looked at Ryder.
“May I?” he asked, and Ryder nodded.
“Yeah, you better hurry up.” Ryder stood next to me and offered nothing to help.
“Jules I’m a federal agent. I’ve been in the Devil’s Hawks under cover. My mission was to infiltrate and gather evidence against your father.”
“What?”
“The Hawks here in Southwood are particularly awful, but we’ve been unable to nail down evidence. It mysteriously disappears.”
“I bet I know why.” The Judge and the system in Southwood were all dirty. They were all under Daddy’s thumb.
“I was ordered by your father to kill Bret. Obviously, I’m not going to do that so I approached Ryder and explained what was about to go down.”
“We had to make your Daddy think it was real,” Ryder said to me.
“You were all in on it? The club?”
“No, just the six of us. We couldn’t risk it getting out.”
“Who drove the ambulance?”
“Ridge, my guy,” Ryder said.
“Boone told us he was ordered to pick up Bret. Your Daddy was pretty clear about what they were going to do. Right in The Judge’s office,” Ryder told me.
“How did you get an ambulance?” I had too many questions to verbalize.
“It was in the shop,” Ryder told me.
“Oh yeah, we just got a hospital contract,” Bret said, and she seemed more interested in that than the drama that I’d just seen.
“Bret recorded your Dad ordering the hit on her. That’s about as good as we’re going to get,” Ryder said.
“Yes, it is. We have a solid case on your father’s activities,” Boone said. “But my cover is essentially blown. The six of you know. And my boss has extracted me after this so as to keep me from being Sonny Maldonado’s next murder.”
Looking at Boone, I had a hard time reconciling that anyone could hurt him. I also had a hard time shifting my feelings. He’d scared me. He was Daddy’s muscle. And here he was trying to help me?
“I’ll meet you at the police station. I’m sorry you had to undergo that trauma in The Judge’s office. I need to debrief and stay out of sight.” All of a sudden the speech pattern of a thug, the monosyllabic henchman, was gone. Boone was a Marine or FBI. I was sure of it.
Boone turned and left the office. It was still hard to process all that had happened in the last few hours.
They had outdone me on trapping Daddy. Between the video of the fire and the order to kill Bret, there was enough to put Daddy away for a long time. Maybe forever.
And I had the extra insurance ready to go.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ryder
I took Jules back to the rooms Ridge, and I had been renting near the shop. I didn’t want her in her place it was too easy a target for her Daddy. She was still in shock and disbelief about the dirt we had on her father.
We were trying to sort it out when she dropped her latest bomb on me.
“I have to go back.” I was 100-percent against Jules leaving my side and heading back to The Judge.
“I won’t let you.” I was serious. I would not let her. We may have evidence to put the squeeze to her Daddy but he was about to be a cornered animal, and that was the most dangerous kind.
“You can’t tell me what I can and can’t do. The Judge needs to think I am still on his side. I need him for one more thing.”
“I don’t want him touching you ever again.” My jealousy had been contained till now. I’d kept a lid on it knowing it was the only way Jules could stay safe, by staying close to The Judge. But now I could protect her. We had what we needed. We even had the feds thanks to the surprise of Boone or whatever his name was.
“I don’t either but..”
“But nothing.” I pulled her close to me and kissed her hard on the lips. Jules kissed right back, and I knew what we were headed for. I couldn’t stop it. I wouldn’t.
I pushed her back up against the wall and lifted her skirt up as far as I could get it. She clawed at my back. I ripped open the blouse she wore and freed her breasts from her bra.
“Ryder,” she said between breaths. The place could have fallen down around us, and I wouldn’t have noticed.
I pulled her panties to the side, and nothing was between us. She held on with her legs, and I drove in and up. She was pinned between the wall and me.
It wasn’t going to take long because it had been so long. I pounded once, twice three times and felt her spasm around me.
“Harder, harder,” she said, and it was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. I was more animal than man. I lost my head and could only feel her hot skin around mine.
“Yes, Ryder, yes,” she said, and I came hard. Her little moans mingling with the heavy breaths I was taking. I lifted her up and carried her gently to the small bed I’d called home since I’d gotten to Southwood.
“You’re so fucking good,” I told her and it was true. It was the truest thing I knew. I wanted to be inside her again. I wanted her to stay with me and until we got her Daddy thrown in prison. I couldn’t let her leave.
So, of course, that’s exactly what she fucking did. She was determined to play a part I didn’t think she needed to play anymore. We could go to the cops now. We could nail Sonny Maldonado to the wall.
“I’m not going to be in danger. I know that. The Judge is mine now. Not Daddy’s.”
If I didn’t want to kidnap her myself, I had to let her go.
I hoped she knew what she was doing.
Fucking women.
She went back to The Judge, and I went to the police with our evidence.
To say it was met with suspicion was putting it mildly. Every detective that interviewed me seemed to be against me.
They were used to doing what The Judge or Sonny said and here I was throwing it all in their faces.
But this time, it wasn’t just our word as witnesses. I had evidence. I had video. I had solid rock shit, and they had to take it in.
>
We spent an entire day and into the evening being interviewed. Ridge told his story again. Bret told hers. They looked at our videos. They also grilled us over and over. Like we were liars.
The Southwood Police did not want to arrest the Devil’s Hawks. It was clear. So was our evidence. It wasn’t until Boone, uh, Kyle, appeared that shit finally started happening.
“Special Agent Kyle Duvall.” He looked very different. His cut was gone so were the leathers. He had a killer business suit on, though, and every cop in the room knew they were dealing with some serious FBI shit.
Jesus, he’d been under the nose of Sonny Maldonado all this time.
“My agents can help with the roundup.” And there it was.
The roundup. Devil’s Hawks were on the ropes. Finally, because Duvall corroborated our story and our evidence. Cruz, Bret, Ridge, and I all told our stories at least three times. Hours went by but slowly we noticed one Hawk after another being paraded through the hallway, in cuffs.
It was a victory.
But still, the entire time, I knew Jules was with The Judge.
The only thing that made it bearable was knowing Sonny Maldonado thought he had succeeded. He thought he’d scared Jules into submission. Instead, his club was being dismantled piece by piece.
And the net was tightening around him.
Still, I had yet to see him at the police station. And that had me scared as hell.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Jules
The Judge was taking phone calls. I heard his side of the conversation. I listened intently.
“Of course. Yes. I’ll work on it. As always. This is not a tragedy, just more complicated.”
I knew it was Daddy issuing his orders to The Judge.
“It’s not smart to do that. Wait. Sonny. Yes, that’s your best option. I will. Yes.” He hung up the call.
“What’s my father want?”
“They’re arresting Devil’s Hawks, rounding them up actually, and he’s naturally upset.”